Today, in the Home Appliances Industry the consumer's demands for better household appliances are continuously increasing and more stringent, requiring more modern and appealing designs, which are at the forefront of technology and have an added value, allowing to perform some of the routine home duties in an easier, safety and reliable manner, providing comfort and speed when performing such tasks.
Among the home appliances, and more particularly white goods or appliances, the washing machine is one of those appliances which is essential, being useful in washing garments, bed clothing and linen in general, saving time and effort, but especially, what is sought today is something more environmentally friendly that saves water and uses less detergent and power.
Currently, there are lots of types of washing machines, such as industrial, domestic, vertical (top loading), horizontal (front loading), automatic, semi-automatic, manual washing machines, washing machines with drum, propeller, agitator, rollers, centrifugation, and the like.
Depending on the type of washing machine, different washing systems exist, namely:
i) European or front loading system, which uses a drum that rotates first in one direction with clothes tumbling inside the drum in such a manner that when they reach a higher point, then they drop onto the water surface. Then there is a small pause which allows for the detergent to act and then resumes the operation but in the opposite direction. This continued action of clothes dropping onto the water is what ultimately removes dirt. The drawback of this system is that it requires longer washing cycles, and hence more power consumption.
ii) American or top loading system, it uses a central agitator with blades that move clothes inside the drum, with the agitator direction periodically reversed, wherein said agitator besides “agitating” the water, also provides friction to clothes in such a way that removes dirt. This system results in a premature deterioration of clothes, because the damage to clothes is higher than in other systems; also consuming higher amounts of water.
iii) Oriental or turbine system, this uses a turbine or impeller, which is simply a disc located on the bottom of the basket having small blades, that when rotating in different directions and at a high speed generates turbulence in water, which twists the clothes, moving them up and down, scrubbing them together against the blades and the basket walls. This washing system is very aggressive with clothes due to the friction which this washing system is based on in order to remove dirt, further requiring a high consumption of water.
iv) Washing system with an infuser, this is the newest system, which uses an infuser generating water streams that remove dirt from clothes without requiring friction between clothes. Washing machine with infusion technology push water through the sides of the basket towards the center, while the infuser pushes water to the walls of the basket, where this actions combined result in water pressure pushing the clothes across the washing machine thus cleaning them. The infuser operates because the water pressure causes the clothes to scrub together and move across the water to remove dirt particles with much less water compared to other systems.
Besides, it is well known that conventional washing machines have in common the excessive consumption of water, in some cases consuming as much as 120 liters per each single load, where water is not efficiently used at all and wasting great amounts of this valuable fluid. Also, they make use of propellers or agitators that due to its shape require large amounts of water inside the drum in order to carry out the washing action. Therefore, by using a higher amount of water conventional washing machines achieve a uniform washing, because the water level always is higher than the load to be washed, so that homogeneity in washing is achieved in a somewhat rough manner and generating an excess in the level of water used which ultimately is wasted.
According to the above, for designing washing machines and its parts, it is important to consider several factors, such as the capability to correctly transmit the power from the motor to the drive shaft, wherein the use of an appropriate clutch mechanism becomes necessary; the use of a mechanism providing the motion to the clothes for a more efficient washing; savings in power consumption, but mainly in water which is a vital resource; among other factor to take into consideration.
In washing machines two kind of clutches are used for the rotary motion transmitting system, one of them is of the float type and the other one is the one which uses a thermo-actuator. However, both systems are designed for washing systems that uses an agitator.
As can be seen from the above, the friendliest washing system for textile clothes is the washing system that uses an infuser.
No document was found in the state of the art describing an infuser with an integral coupler usable in automatic washing machines.
Nevertheless, in order to establish the state of the art for the inventions as claimed in the present specification, reference will be made to documents describing float-type clutch systems and an agitator as a mechanism to impart motion to clothes. Such is the case with the Mexican Patent No. 275,317, which refers to a floating clutch for two concentric shafts, wherein by means of a movable body, power can be transmitted from one shaft to the other through gears that engage and disengage vertically depending on the presence of certain fluid, thus transmitting torque from the inner shaft to the coupler, and from this in turn to the movable body, and in turn to the fixed clutch, which transmits said torque to the outer shaft when it is in the engaged position. However, such system has the disadvantage of being used only in washing machines with agitators.
In another instance, Mexican Patent No. 286,316 describes a clutch for washing machines to rotate or oscillate an agitator or propeller, and selectively rotate a basket, comprising a support member having a first holder, a second holder and end members, a thermo-actuator with a piston, a fork having a lever attached to arms, ends and a protrusion, wherein the ends and the protrusion are arranged on the arm; a first spring connected between the support member and the shifting fork, a cover shaft and a shaft configured so as to rotate, a movable clutch containing an top wall, a groove, an inner part and a bottom wall, wherein said ends abut against the groove and the top wall, wherein the bottom wall comprises a plurality of alternating teeth and grooves, and wherein the movable clutch couples to the cover-shaft through its inner portion, a pulley clutch having a plurality of alternating teeth and grooves, and an inner portion, wherein the pulley-clutch is coupled to a shaft through the inner portion of said pulley-clutch, wherein the movable clutch engages with the pulley-clutch by a motion of said arms, the ends, the protrusion and the movable clutch.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,586,455 refers to an automatic washing machine, which includes a float-type clutch having external gear teeth. The float-type clutch is located around a shaft which is driven by an electric motor and to which an agitator is secured. The float-type clutch couples to the shaft to an inner rotatable tub when its external gear teeth are engaged with internal gear teeth at the inner tub side in a dehydration step. The float-type clutch moves upwardly in order to float when water is supplied into the inner tub in a washing step. The external gear teeth of the float-type clutch are disengaged from the internal gears so that the shaft is decoupled from the inner tub. The washing machine further includes a floater to restrict rotation which moves upwardly in order to float in the washing step to couple the inner tub to an outer stationary tub and which decouples the inner tub from the outer tub in the dehydration step. A device delivers a position signal indicative of the position of the float-type clutch which is vertically movable. Based on the position signal, a control device controls the drive motor. The drive motor is of an outer rotor type and a motor control circuit is disposed in its stator.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,779,431 discloses an agitator that produces sinusoidal motion inside the washing machine, which by means of the agitator having flexible sheaths provides condolatory motion, wherein washing is carried out by friction of the load itself. Also, said cited document require large amounts of water to achieve an optimum performance, because the agitator design requires more water to operate efficiently.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,651,277 describes an automatic washing machine, which includes an elongated shaft mounted to a motor for rotation about the longitudinal axis of the shaft, a fabric basket is rotatable mounted to the shaft and an agitator is attached to the shaft above the fabric basket. A clutch is positioned between the agitator and the fabric basket and is movable from a disengaged position wherein the agitator rotates independently of the basket to an engaged position wherein the agitator rotates in unison with the basket. The clutch is movable from its engaged position to its disengaged position in response to the rise of washing fluid within the washing basket.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,634,193 refers to a washing machine having a floating clutch for performing the conversion of a cleansing step and a dehydrating step. This floating clutch can be actuated only by using buoyancy and gravity to be generated during the feeding/draining of water without a separate driving part. Accordingly, the construction of the clutch part can be simplified, and consequently the cost of manufacturing the washing machine can be reduced.
U.S. patent No. discloses a washing machine with a floating clutch wherein a float is connected to the rotational force of a motor through a centrifuge drying shaft or disconnects the rotational force from the drying rotary shaft, since it is moved upwards or downwards according to the supply or drain of washing water, thus allowing to carry out a washing operation or a dehydration operation, while an air layer is formed so as to prevent the washing water to reach the gears included within the floating clutch.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,951,121 relates to a washing machine with direct drive impeller such that it is directly connected to a motor. In this washing machine, the conversion of cleansing/dehydrating processes can be achieved without any problem by a floating clutch capable of being actuated by buoyancy and gravity to be induced during the supply/drain of water.
According to the above, it can be appreciated that there is a great variety of washing machines in the state of the art, some of which are discussed herein. However, all of them include an agitator or impeller to provide motion to clothes and thus remove dirt particles. Nevertheless, as already discussed above, the washing system using an agitator or impeller require large amounts of water, besides the premature damage imparted to the textile clothes.